When a disaster strikes, quick and accurate situational information is critical to an effective response. Before responders can act in the affected area, they need to know the location, cause and severity of damage. But disasters can strike anywhere, disrupting local communication and transportation infrastructure, making the process of assessing specific local damage difficult, dangerous, and slow.

Recognizing an opportunity to solve a key analytical bottleneck, the Defense Innovation Unit, working together with other Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Recovery (HADR) organizations, is releasing a new densely labeled, high-resolution satellite dataset and a challenge to the computer vision community.

Help us automate damage assessment to accelerate recovery from natural disasters and win prizes ($150,000 of cash awards)!